What should you look for in a CRM?

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the age of technology, we can become overwhelmed with all the options. If you are thinking about creating a website, you can choose WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and Drupal, to name a few. If you are looking for an email marketing platform you can look at Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Hubspot. A CRM is no different. Popular CRMs are X2CRM, Salesforce, Zoho, and SugarCRM. There are many more, so how do you know which one to choose?

To help guide you, you should look at two things:

1. Know your business goals – What are you trying to accomplish? Increase sales? Increase donors? Customer retention? Understanding your business goals will help you know what to look for in a CRM. The right CRM will be able to support your business goals. With the right CRM, you can configure it to align with your business goals. In previous blogs, we shared how you can use your CRM to measure Key Performance Indicators to know if you are reaching your business goals. If you have to align your business goals with your CRM’s functionality, then it is not the right CRM.
2. Look for core features in the CRM – Core features used individually or combined will help you meet your business goals. We recommend looking for 6 core features:
   1. Workflow – Does the CRM have a user-friendly method for automating tasks? For example, if you have a sales pipeline, can the CRM move each prospect automatically through the pipeline based on the achievement of milestones? Or, can the CRM send a thank you note automatically each time a donor makes a donation? Workflow is necessary to bring consistency and efficiency to your sales and marketing process.
   2. Marketing Automation – Can the CRM automate prospect and customer engagement and move their customer’s journies forward? For example, can the CRM respond to a prospect who went to your landing page based on an email you sent? You want to make sure the CRM’s marketing automation can be triggered by any module, customer activity, or campaign.
   3. Reporting – Can the CRM provide a deep level of reports and insights with a 360-degree view of the customer? For example, does your CRM allow you to slice and dice your data across all data fields? Does the CRM make it easy for you to track your KPIs and key business goals? Does your CRM make it easy for your management to understand the data and identify trends and patterns? If the reports are too simple, they will lead to confusion, false assumptions, and frustration.
   4. Mobile – Can the CRM be easily accessed in the field by staff for accurate, real-time data? The CRM should be responsive when viewed in a mobile browser or have an app so your staff can access the CRM data at any time, anywhere.
   5. Security – Does the CRM have a robust level of accessibility and control? Does the CRM allow you to set different authority levels so that some users only view but cannot edit records? You want to know your CRM is secure so look at the control you will have with users and teams.

Choosing the right CRM is not a hard task, but it does require research because you want a CRM that helps you meet your goals instead of being an obstacle. If you do not have a CRM or are unhappy with your current CRM, we would love to talk to you about the CCC CRM which can be configured to your business goals and excels in its core features. Contact us to schedule a free demo at jonr@cccsolutions.com or 301-332-0613.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”More CRM Topics” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_empty_space][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”2″ element_width=”6″ orderby=”rand” grid_id=”vc_gid:1592270986047-76ef0daf-2853-3″ taxonomies=”4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]